This paper is the first research attempt that investigates the impact of a large number of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Greek banks, employing widely accepted in the literature of corporate governance econometric models. Results indicate that system GMM models are more suitable methodological tools than pooled OLS and fixed effects models to address well-known econometric problems, such as endogeneity, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity of individual banks. The findings, as derived from the application of GMM models, imply that increasing the board size and the number of independent directors can both have positive impact on the performance of Greek banks, but only up to a certain point. Thus, bank efficiency will increase as board size and the proportion of independent directors grow up to a point where these relationships hit a maximum from which bank performance decreases. Our multi-model estimations failed to trace any significant contribution of the number of female and foreign directors on the performance of Greek banks. Finally, the dual appointment of a CEO as Chairman appears to affect negatively two out of four proxies of bank performance. Overall, the results provide support for the positive impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the performance of Greek banks. The significance of these findings increases, considering that the period under study (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014) is marked by high market volatility and uncertainty due to the well-known debt crisis that plagues Greece since the beginning of 2008.

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Events can play a critical role in implementing sustainable developing models at destinations. Furthermore, the perceptions of stakeholders may contribute to the sustainability of a tourist destination in the long term. This paper presents an insight into the stakeholders' perceptions of the importance of festival events in promoting tourism sustainability, concentrating on Patras' Carnival. Festivals can be an instrument for tourism development, city image improvement and boosting regional economies. Based on a theoretical model that is grounded in the social exchange theory the research enriches the existing knowledge on promoting sustainable events and sustainable approaches to tourism development by taking into account the views of the leading players of tourism, local residents and business owners. A quantitative survey via a structured questionnaire was conducted in the city of Patras, Greece's third-largest city before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The questionnaire was distributed to the residents and business owners during the Patras' Carnival (Patrino Carnavali), the largest event of its kind in Greece. In total, 238 people participated in the study. It will be presented as a variety of positive and negative impacts of tourism toward economy, society, culture and environment and shed light on adequate managerial practices that boost further tourism flows in cities. The results may be useful not only to local government entities involved in the tourism strategic planning but also to stakeholders engaged in creating sustainable competitive advantage in the tourism industry.

Shadow economy is harmful to the whole official economy. It distorts competition and stock prices, it worsens income distribution and is an obstacle for entrepreneurship and economic growth. There are many reasons causing shadow economy. One of them is earnings management. A lot of research has been made on earnings management. In this paper Jones (1991) model will be used to examine the phenomenon of earnings management in the Greek construction industry. The findings are: first in the Greek construction sector discretionary accruals in practice affect negligibly the percentage of shadow economy in GDP, second in the Greek construction sector discretionary accruals (showing lower profits) increase in periods of higher capital tax rate, third in the Greek construction sector usually large companies resort to earnings management more than the small ones. Hence, Jones (1991) model shows the way for further investigation on tax avoidance. It should be noted however that shadow economy is a very complicated topic and is not only a matter of just earnings management. The contribution of this paper is that it uses Jones (1991) model to spot tax evading companies and triggers further research. Besides, the findings of this paper indicate the need for the global adoption of the international accounting and auditing standards. Cultural differentials across countries, which hinder this adoption, must be overcome.

This chapter examines the impact of banks and stock markets on economic growth for a panel that includes the 28 EU member states. The originality of this study lies in that it tests these relationships by employing sub-regional panels based on the geographical distribution of EU countries and by clustering EU member states in Eurozone and non-Euro countries. Results support the stock market-led growth hypothesis only for the case of the full sample panel. Furthermore, both the full panel results and Eurozone panel results fail to support the bank credit-led growth hypothesis. These results are inconsistent with other studies, which however employ only full regional panels.